A Residual Pet Peeve

One of the most annoying things for me to hear is the repeated request to visit ‘haunted’ places, with the same regurgitated stories (of paranormal experiences) as the reasons why. A perfect example is a location here in the Northeast that’s known far and wide – worldwide, actually – and which brings forward very few “new” or unique experiences by witnesses of paranormal activity there. Out of respect, I won’t name the location, but I’ll say it’s been on TV show after TV show, and has been the target of Halloween specials over the years, docudramas, historical reenactments, and the whole 9 yards. The location is infamous, and the farther away from the Northeast you get, the more enamored you find the population to be with its history, legend, and lore. I think this is what grates on my nerves the most – how the legend and lore persevered, and grew stronger, over the years. It wasn’t enough an historical event occurred at this location, the story had to change and become more disturbing as the years went on – and along the way transformed into something more disturbing than what originally happened there, which was already pretty disturbing. But the facets of the paranormal activity at this location have, pretty much, remained the same. The same general experiences in the same general areas which, in and of itself, reeks of “residual haunting”. It challenges me to no end because the legend and lore precede, and have become more important than, the realities of what exists there today. A tragedy occurred at this historic location, and it plays over and over again in a repeated fashion with no discernible change in events as they are witnessed and/or experienced. It’s residual. It’s all residual. Yet if I go out West and say I’m a ghost hunter from New England I’ll undoubtedly be asked if I’ve investigated this location. Personally, I’d rather investigate a location with paranormal activity that varies and can’t be predicted; communication with paranormal activity that happens occasionally but which can be interactive. That’s where the action is, because it’s real, it’s not simply replaying something that happened in the past. What’s happening in that moment is really happening. So when it comes to pet peeves in paranormal, I’d have to say, the fact that people like to flock to locations because of their long lasting legend/lore is almost as irritating to me as hearing the location of interest contains mostly residual occurrences, and either the interested parties don’t care, or they don’t know to consider the difference.